An investigation of Stoic Physics Part 1: The All

 



The philosophical system of Stoicism is divided into three parts.

  1. Physics
  2. Logic
  3. Ethics
As modern Stoics typically spend most of our time studying Ethics. But if we want to get the most out of reading the ancient texts we should at least have a rudimentary understanding of their views of physics and logic. I will spend a little time over the next few posts examining Stoic physics. There are two sources that I recommend if you wish to explore these topics further. One is The Lives of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius. The other is Stoicism by John Sellers. I am not an expert on the subject but will share some basics, I highly encourage you to read into these texts if you want to know more! If you want to dig deeper here is a paper by Vanessa de Harven.

If we start at the grandest scale possible in the Stoic universe we will see The All (Pan). The All consists of an infinite void and the Cosmos/World (Holon) within the void. The Cosmos is considered to be a living being containing a soul (god). The human soul was thought to be a fragment of this universal soul.



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